What Will Happen to Humans When AI Takes Over Work?
When work disappears
Before it was a distant dream, but now it is becoming reality faster than we could ever imagine. The time when robots and super smart computers with AI do almost every job better and faster than any human could possibly do. Soon we won’t need drivers, cashiers, doctors, teachers or virtually any other job. The burning question on everyone’s mind is what will happen to humans when AI takes over work?
I could give you my opinion, but I prefer for us to look at what some really smart people think might happen.
1. Humans become creators, explorers, and meaning seekers
“When work disappears, people don’t just lose income. They also lose purpose.” — Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018)
Yuval suggests in his book that if we didn’t need to work to survive, we might start doing things we love like; Painting, drawing, music, travel, family and every other creative thing. People will need to find new meaning in life and might turn to hobbies and spirituality.
2. Humans work with AI instead of being replaced
“Technological progress is not destiny. We shape our tools and our tools shape us.” — Brynjolfsson & McAfee, The Second Machine Age (2014)
Some experts think AI will help us rather than replace us, that AI might become like that superhero sidekick to help us do our jobs better. We could use it to do everything and not give it full control over everything.
3. The rise of the “Useless class”
“The rise of AI may create a class of people who are not just unemployed, but unemployable.” — Yuval Noah Harari, speech at World Economic Forum, Davos, 2018
Not everyone will be happy not working anymore, some might feel bored, useless, spend too much time playing video games or watching TV. They could completely lose purpose and give rise to what Yuval called the “Useless class” — a group of people society won’t know what to do with.
4. People who say “No thanks” to AI
Some might choose to live the old-fashioned way without relying on AI for anything. They might instead retreat to communities where things are done without the use of AI and relying very little on technology.
Even today you do have communities like that who refuse even the current technology, so some might refuse AI to change their lives and prefer to live simply and quietly.
My opinion now
These are quite unprecedented and difficult to predict, the direction humanity will take. It's like the whole essence of our lives will be stripped off in mere moments. We never even imagined for a single instant that something could just solve all our problems so fast. We are born with problems and knowing that all we have to do is to fix those problems while solving the ones we will inevitably create as well.
Humans enjoy creating problems just to solve them later, but now you have a technology which is calling our bluff. Humanity has always created problems and pretended they didn’t know the fix, but now you have something which can address those problems, so we no longer have any excuse.
1. Interplanetary exploration
I think initially with AI allowing us to do virtually whatever we want, we would spend a huge time colonizing every single part of the earth, exploring the deep seas and the most remote areas on the planet. Once that’s done, and we’ve eventually gotten bored with earth, we’ll scale up interplanetary exploration.
Assuming AI is able to solve any problem, we’ll figure out a way to travel throughout our solar system, and that alone is a task which will take countless centuries at least. We’ll establish bases on every planet we possibly can and strive to become the dominant specie in this part of the universe. I know it sounds like a fantasy but looks very realistic to me at this point.
2. Addiction to the metaverse
The current form of the metaverse is still very bad, but I think in a near future we might be looking at it becoming very close to reality. In the real world there are still limitations which even AI can’t possibly solve yet, but in the metaverse we can create a reality of our choosing and pretty much do whatever we like. You can imagine yourself as a hero, king, conqueror or a simple farmer, except that you have all the perks and none of the downsides. Whatever your mind can imagine, you can make it happen.
With us not having to work anymore, I think a lot of people might get addicted to a virtual reality where they can create whatever they like. While the robots and AI are busy handling our problems in the real world, we would all be stuck in a virtual reality, playing our wildest fantasies.
Conclusion
Humanity is headed for unprecedented times, and some experts say AI will be the last invention of humanity. Nevertheless, nobody can say for sure what would be, this could be all a fluke, and we might just get caught up having to deal with just another set of problems. We can only speculate in the meantime, while approaching it all cautiously and carefully to ensure we don’t cross any point of no return.
Thanks for reading ☺️
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